


Who R U?

by hazelhackley



Series: Killer Princesses [4]
Category: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Related Fandoms
Genre: Assistant, Gen, Hats, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelhackley/pseuds/hazelhackley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hatter Maddington did not work alone as a hat maker for the Queen of Hearts. Her name was Alice but too much of a bad thing twisted her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mighty as the Pen

The Queen of Hearts stomped into the crowded, hat filled room. “ALICE!” she shrieked, voice ringing from wall to wall. She lifted her head from the velvet hat she was preparing for the King of Hearts. His birthday was soon approaching and he had requested a new one as his prior one was deteriorating beyond repair.

“Yes, my queen,” she answered dryly, head returning down to her work, unsurprised.   
“I will need a new hat. The March Hare has taken off with my favorite. You know the one. Replicate it.”   
“Will this be for your majesty’s birthday?”

“What does it matter? JUST STEP ON IT!” her dress furled around in frenzy as the queen left, slamming the door behind her, in usual fashion. Hatter came in from the back corner, busying himself with layers of felt. His hands shook from accumulated years of working with the mercury filled material and found the proper materials with slight difficulty for the Queen of Hearts’ requested hat. 

Every year, the king hosted a huge blowout party to pass over the effort from the last in hopes of impressing his queen. This year’s celebrations seemed like it might improve her disposition. She had been decisively more angry in her declarations of death statements, despite the fact that the knights rarely followed through with her commands. If the next day’s festivities didn’t cheer her, it seemed to her closer subjects that nothing would. The entire kingdom was on edge as well. Knights had been more wary, everyone fearing small slip ups, leading to mistakes that would not have occurred naturally.   
            “Alice?” Hatter questioned the young girl.  
            “Yessir?” she continued working without as much as a halt in her progress.

“Give us the burgundy thread will you?” her work slowed down slightly, but not by much as she found the thread, tossing it overhead to her right towards Hatter.

The pair of them worked mostly in silence save for the request of materials on the other side of the room. The shop was incredibly cluttered and was often difficult to navigate through the mess of scissors, ribbons, fabrics and other miscellaneous decorations, such as the metallic and silk bright hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds. “You know, it really is such a shame how the Queen has felt as of late,” he sparked up a conversation.

            Alice leapt up with an unannounced burst of excitement. “Hatter, old pal, you are absolutely, unequivocally correct!” We ought to do something for her!”

            “She’s alrea-alread ordered th-th-this hat,” Hatter stuttered.   
            “Oh, but the hat is but a _start!_ ” she exclaimed, stepping all over the shop desk, thinking aloud. “What could one present to the Queen of Hearts, wanting nothing but misery throughout her lands?”   
            “Control of emotion?” Hatter suggested.   
            Alice gawked at him, mouth agape, at this positively mad idea. “Are you gone more than twice ‘round the bend? Have the methods appeared to mix with the madness in your mind? No, my God on high, I do hope it not so!” she dramatically turned on a heel, facing away from her colleague. Alice began teetering on the edge of the chestnut desk. “She deserves a _show_ , my lad! With spark! Fervor! Dance and art!” Aged blue layers of her dress twirled around every which way she walked. Alice faced Hatter once more, her eyes full of life, courage, and just an ounce of dare.

 

X

 

“Your honors, Queen and King of Hearts, our beloved rulers of the Wonderland: May I present Hatter Maddington and Alice Lidell.” The six of spades announced the artisans and opened the door to the throne room.   
            “This should be entertaining,” the Queen leaned in and chuckled to her husband. Hatter and Alice’s mercury woven brains were a regular joke about the palace; quite often a source of entertainment to the high court. Their regular mood changes seemed like they were consistently switching characters as if in a play. Their shakes and tremors seemed as if they had no idea of where reality was, barely able to steady their selves. Hats often resulted in crookedly seamed hats, though they stayed together well enough. As Hatter and Alice had presented the finished hats to the couple that morning in time for the day’s events, the royal couple was not expecting them.

Dinner had been prepared and the habitants of the castle invited to present the Queen her birthday gifts. For many, this came in the form of activity or show rather than in material gifts that you or I would know as commonplace. Hatter walked into the throne way, preceded by Alice to present him. “Your majesties!” she announced, clearing the extraneous chatter from amongst the dinner guests. “Myself and Mister Maddington haven’t an excess of skills aside from hats. However, we make do with what we can in our spare hours. Your majesties, Hatter Maddington: Expert.  
           

 _A master milliner, he,_  
            Wishes to grant a song while you take on tea,   
            So listen well and heed him well,   
            And you might just fall under a spell.”   
           

Alice’s song lilted with her bright youthful tongue, inviting in the Hatter’s laughingly high register. She swept aside, revealing the shaking man as he cleared a throat, singing loud for all to hear.   
           

 _“Madame, though you’re not much youth,_  
            And your days of small size is down the laundry chute,   
            We want you to know your control shan’t end,   
            Even though the sword is not as mighty as the pen,-“

“CEASE!” the Queen interrupted Maddington in mid-verse. “This man has committed the egregious crime of murdering Time! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!


	2. What's the Time?

Alice and Hatter stayed completely frozen in place, Hatter’s tongue still on the roof of his mouth, completing the word _pen._ While it was a regular activity of hearing the Queen of Hearts’ death declarations, she rarely openly explained her reason for why she ordered her subjects’ deaths. Alice’s eyes bulged out of her skull, struck with sudden fear. _Would her head be cut off for the Queen’s afternoon games of croquet?_ “My most royal majesty, if I might explain myself. We merely thought it best to entertain you. There was quite a nice bit at the end about the roses of your cheeks actually-“ 

“ENOUGH! Send them away.” The Queen of Hearts dismissed them, thoroughly annoyed. The six and nine of Spades grabbed by the forearms, dragging them out of the hall. The Queen stood, to address Time, who sat a number of tables away from the furious Queen. “My lord Time,” she spoke sweetly. “I do apologize for this attempt on your life. The only thankfulness I can say for this event is that they did not succeed as you still sit before us.” 

“Thank you your majesty.” Time cleared his throat. “While I agree fully with your opinion that they need to be punished, I think Death need not be involved as I find it a bit much. Instead, I sentence the criminal duo’s time be halted to 6 o’clock pm for all time beginning tomorrow evening. 

The Queen nodded in agreement to the punishment. “SIX!” She shouted at the Spade by the door who had returned to the hall. “Tell the assailants they ought to remove themselves from the castle in the next day in addition to their sentence.” 

“Yes, your majesty.” 

X

Alice sat a long since dusted table, jostling about, cups of tea staining the once pristine table. Hatter had left Alice’s life in what felt like an age. The paranoia of her mood swings had made her irritated and more violent. 

X

“Come! Come! More tea, dear Hatter!” Her hands shook to the point where Alice might as well not even be attempting to drink. Hatter’s idea of time had become nonexistent. He had no grasp on reality or what had or had not happened. His excess of mercury had devolved into actual madness, no longer trusting the girl that he once called “partner.” He shakily stood from the table, legs wobbly. 

“I think that’s enough tea for now, my Alice.” 

“There’s _never_ enough tea,” She smiled, wide eyes staring him down, intimidating him. He shook his head and in a fit of fury, she tossed the brittle porcelain teapot at him. It broke on impact, giving him severe burns. “Get up, get up, my Hatter!” she exclaimed, seeing to not care of the events she had just caused. “It’s 6 o’clock! It’s time for tea!” she stood, angrily kicking the barely alive figure of a man to a bloody pulp. The Hatter lay there, until completely motionless, kicked to death. 


	3. Self-Reflection

Friends gone, Alice had no one to occupy her thoughts but herself. Years passed, but the insanity of Alice remained at an old table for six o’clock tea. She was unable to separate reality and began to see a cat in the wood, smiling as if in mockery, reminding her of the day the Mad Hatter disappeared from her life. 

“Who are you?” it asked, in a gravelly, low voice, sounding much like a man from her passed who felt like a grand-father. 

“Alice,” she answered the cat, automatically, not realizing she was merely speaking to herself. “Alice Liddell.” 

“Well, Alice Liddell, I ask you again. Who _are_ you?” 

“I’m a girl. It’s six o’clock,” she repeated, pointing at the pocket watch on the table. 

“ _Why_ is it six o’clock?” the cat posed. 

“Because that’s the time!” she answered, getting annoyed with the animal. 

“Why is time necessary? Need we a clock to answer whether it time for tea or supper?” 

“Because that’s how it’s always _been_ done!” Now if you don’t mind, leave me to my tea in peace!” 

“Alright, Alice.” The voice faded away, leaving just a smile behind. She stared into the once again empty wood. The cat had a point, however. She’d spent so much energy focusing on the when’d she’d not focused on the who. 

X

After weeks murmuring to herself, urging herself to leave the chair, she was unlocked from the punishment. Another was now meant to suffer a worse fate than she, according to Time. Alice wandered the wood, with naught but the occasional cat in her mind, its smile pushing her forward to discover Wonderland. 


End file.
